My favorite recipes are the ones where I discover I only need to buy 1 ingredient. I don’t think I’m able to fully express the depth of my love for that situation. It’s the opposite of the feeling I get when I see a recipe for something s’more flavored and I think I have all the ingredients, and then I realize that I ate all the mini marshmallows again, so I don’t have any.

In any case, you probably have almost all these ingredients too. If you are a better person than me, you probably keep frozen chicken in the freezer, as I should. If so, you probably never find yourself wondering what you can make for dinner out of kidney beans and lasagna noodles, because you plan the week’s meals in advance. Well done you. Please come live with me.

This whole process took me 40 minutes, from halving the tomatoes to eating my first bite. And I had time to watch snippets of Tosh.0 during it. This dinner goes out to my cousin Susie, who appreciates quick, easy and healthy recipes more than anyone, having 3 adorable kiddos under 4.

Method: Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl (or jar) mix together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic. In a 9×13 baking dish or a roasting pan, put the tomatoes in the bottom of the pan. Place the chicken on the tomatoes.

i always think boneless chicken thighs look like floppy socks.

Pour the vinegar/garlic mixture over the chicken. Roast for 30 minutes, depending on what kind of chicken you used. Baste the chicken with the pan juices 2 or 3 times during cooking. If, toward the end of the cooking time you want to turn your broiler on high for a minute or two, that would be good. THAT’S IT.

Sweet Corn Polenta

1 cup corn polenta (polenta and grits are the same thing. I use Bob’s Red Mill)

3 cups liquid (I used 2 cups chicken stock, 1 cup skim milk and a dash of half and half, because I had it. The point is, cooking ratio for polenta is 1:3, meaning for every cup you use of dry polenta, you need 3 cups of liquid.)

2 cups or so of sweet corn, fresh if you have it, frozen if you don’t (if you had fresh corn on the cob recently and have leftovers, this would be an excellent use for it)

salt and pepper

Method: About 20 minutes from when you think the chicken will be done, start this process. In a large saucepan on medium heat, mix together the polenta and 3 cups of liquid. Stir frequently as it cooks and absorbs the liquid, this will take 20 minutes or so. Near the very end, when it’s just a bit waterier than you’d like, stir in the corn and let it heat through.

Serve the chicken on the polenta, and pour the tomato-y pan sauce you created in the bottom of the pan over it. You could shave a little parmesan over it, too. And I served mine with a green salad.

Notes: During the roasting process, if you open the oven door and are knocked over by the vinegar fumes, don’t worry, they will mellow by the end. Also, this heats up REALLY well as leftovers.